Ever since I started playing with packet filters on embedded PCs, I wanted to
have a nice web-based GUI to control all aspects of my firewall without having
to type a single shell command.
There are numerous efforts to create nice firewall packages with web
interfaces on the Internet (most of them Linux based), but none met all my
requirements (free, fast, simple, clean and with all the features I need).
So, I eventually started writing my own web GUI. But soon I figured out that
I didn't want to create another incarnation of webmin – I wanted to create a
complete, new embedded firewall software package.
It all evolved to the point where one could plug in the box, set the LAN IP
address via the serial console, log into the web interface and set it up.
Then I decided that I didn't like the usual bootup system configuration with
shell scripts (I already had to write a C program to generate the filter rules
since that's almost impossible in a shell script), and since my web interface
was based on PHP, it didn't take me long to figure out that I might use PHP
for the system configuration as well.
That way, the configuration data would no longer have to be stored in text
files that can be parsed in a shell script – it could now be stored in an XML
file. So I completely rewrote the whole system again, not changing much in the
look-and-feel, but quite a lot "under the hood".

Dearm0n0wallenthusiasts,onthisday12yearsago,Ihavereleasedthefirstversionofm0n0walltothepublic.Intheory,onecouldstillrunthatversion-pb1itwascalled-onasuitablyoldPCanduseittocontroltheInternetaccessofasmallLAN(notthatitwouldberecommendedsecurity-wise).However,theworldkeepsturning,andwhilem0n0wallhasmadeanefforttokeepup,therearenowbettersolutionsavailableandunderactivedevelopment.Therefore,todayIannouncethatthem0n0wallprojecthasofficiallyended.Nodevelopmentwillbedoneanymore,andtherewillbenofurtherreleases.Theforumsandthemailinglistwillbefrozenattheendofthismonth.Allthecontentsofthewebsite,repository,downloads,mailinglistandforumwillbearchivedinapermanentlocationonthewebsothattheyremainaccessibleindefinitelytoanyonewhomightbeinterestedinthem.m0n0wallhasservedastheseedforseveralotherwellknownopensourceprojects,likepfSense,FreeNASandAskoziaPBX.Thenewestoffspring,OPNsense(https://opnsense.org),aimstocontinuetheopensourcespiritofm0n0wallwhileupdatingthetechnologytobereadyforthefuture.Inmyview,itistheperfectwaytobringthem0n0wallideainto2015,andIencourageallcurrentm0n0walluserstocheckoutOPNsenseandcontributeiftheycan.Finally,Iwouldliketotakethisopportunitytothankeveryonewhohasbeeninvolvedinthem0n0wallprojectandhelpedinsomewayoranother-bycontributingcode,documentation,answeringquestionsonthemailinglistortheforum,donatingorjustspreadingtheword.Ithasbeenagreatjourneyforme,andI'm convinced that even now that it has come to an end,them0n0wallspiritwillliveoninthevariousprojectsithasspawned.

Deciso B.V. the founder of OPNsense has taken over the m0n0wall websites from
Manuel Kasper and continues to offer all the sources, website & forum content
both as a historical reference as well as to preserve knowledge gained.

The OPNsense core team want to thank Manuel for all this effort as for him
OPNsense would not have been possible.